charles barrow's writing

It's autumn, and leaves are on the turn. I took this photo of an Acer (I think) in my favourite park. It's definitely responding to the shorter daylight hours and cooler temperatures and is on the turn, changing into its autumn apparel. As the tree withdraws the supply of chlorophyll from the leaves, the green colouring that that chemical provides slowly recedes, and it happens by degrees along the length of a branch. So, the leaves on the outer tips of the branches can be the bright red seen in the photo, while the next set of leaves further up the branch can be part red, part green, and the leaves closest to the trunk retain, for the moment, their bright green colouring. This is Autumn arriving slowly; leaves turning by degrees. This coming Sunday, the last in October, here in the UK, we'll turn the clocks back by one hour. Always an adventure in time, and space, when this happens. The change officially marks the end of British Summertime, and the beginning of winter, at ...

The autumn is my favourite season. I've heard it described as summer with a side serving of melancholy, and that sounds about right to me. I enjoy taking walks in nature and seeing the trees, shrubs, and flowers winding down after all the hard work of putting their best feet forward all summer, and now bedding down for the winter. And that's what autumn is, for me, it's weeks of preparation for the cold months of winter. Obviously there's the always satisfying job of shaking the mothballs out of your warmest knitwear, but beyond the practical tasks there is the mental preparation that needs to be done ahead of the arrival of the dark months. I like to set myself a long-term project that can keep me occupied for months. Something I can do indoors, and that'll keep my brain active. It might be a reading challenge, or a writing project. I also draw up a list of practical chores to do that I've been ignoring; sewing a button back on a shirt, putting a nail in the wa...

I love autumn. I know many people find it melancholic, marking the end of summer as it does, but I love its sights, colours, sounds, and smells. It always lifts my spirits. I've been having a hard time of it lately. I've been struggling with depression and anxiety, brought on by a torrid time at work.  My writing has fallen by the wayside over the last months, and I've not been able to summon the energy to do much about it.  But autumn has been working its magic and I find myself slowly resurfacing and feeling interest in my surroundings and with a sense of urgency about the future. Below are a few of the images that I've been posting to Twitter, on the theme of autumnal. I suppose taking these, and other, photos has been my creative outlet while I've been incapable of writing anything. Photos are the author's own.

I was looking for an excuse to post this photo. How could I post it and make it seem relevant to anything? November. It's the first day of November, it's grey, dreary and very wet outside. A day to hurry down the street, ignoring everything around you in a rush to get home. Autumn is often like this, but it can be warm and sunny and if you slow down and look around then you might spot a mushroom village like this one. Writing. A few posts ago I wrote about Agatha Christie's penchant for poisoning her fictional victims. I was talking about digitalis, in particular, that time but now I'm wondering if the Queen of Murder (a new nickname that probably won't catch on), if Christie ever used mushrooms to kill off a rich old relative and prompt Miss Marple to get snooping.* Sure, some fungi are delicious in a risotto (with parmesan) but others cause the most hideous, lingering deaths. I'm certain she would have known which was which. I've no idea what kind of...

I got heavily rained on today and felt quite chilled. I bought the ingredients for a spicy Squash soup for dinner. I saw Christmas cards for sale in two different shops this afternoon. The leaves on the Horse Chestnut tree at the end of the road are starting to curl at the edges. I picked up a second-hand copy of Breaking Bad Season One box-set for watching as the evenings draw in.